Bake & Pray: Liturgies and Recipes for Baking Bread as a Spiritual Practice
about the book:
From God’s provision of manna in the wilderness to Jesus’ miraculous multiplication of loaves, bread functions throughout Scripture as a sign of God’s presence and provision.
Professional baker and practical theologian Kendall Vanderslice has spent a lot of time reflecting on the connection between the dough that clung to her hands at work and the bread blessed and pressed into her palm at church, ultimately seeing that they both were tangible reminders that God was with her and that God cared.
Weaving baking science and technique together with theological reflections drawn from a wide range of Christian traditions, Kendall will:
teach you how to incorporate bread making into the rhythms of your busy life
reveal the ins-and-outs of bread baking while unlocking the spiritual parallels woven into each loaf
provide breadmaking liturgies and historical recipes to bake through a variety of liturgical holidays and seasons
show how to incorporate baking as a form of prayer in our lives.
As you follow the steps to bake bread―whether you are a lifelong baker or intimidated by the thought of yeast―you will learn something about the character of God and the life of faith. In Bake & Pray, you will get not only a practical understanding of how to bake bread, but also receive a deeper appreciation for the ways God can shape you in the process.
Order Bake & Pray now from any of these online retailers:
*Please note, due to a last minute cover change, the cover information on these sites might vary.
The book you receive will be a hardcover book with the cover image shown above!
What others have said about Kendall’s writing on bread:
“I am grateful for Kendall Vanderslice’s By Bread Alone--a sustenance of hope, a needed nourishment for us hungering to create beauty faced with the bitter gaps of our divided cultures. Her words give rise to our tenderness, and her memorable chapters fill our hearts with compassion, Every page of this book (full of recipes) is brimming with refractive colors shone through the broken prisms of her life, a communion journey of service in tears, as a sojourner baker, a fellow maker into the aroma of the New.”
- Makoto Fujimura, artist and author of Art + Faith: A Theology of Making
“By Bread Alone is a soulful, searching glimpse at trusting the goodness of God when it seems most opaque. Kendall Vanderslice trades toxic positivity for the promise of sustenance and the result is deeply honest and curiously comforting. These pages are dusted with the flour of daily bread. If you are lost, longing, hope-weary or barely hanging-on (aren’t we all?) read this and be nourished.”
- Shannan Martin, author of The Ministry of Ordinary Places and Start with Hello
"In this deeply personal account, baker theologian Kendall Vanderslice, explores how baking bread can become a lens through which we understand the Eucharist anew and what it means to allow God to form our lives into a living sacrifice for the life of the world. Be moved, touched and inspired as you journey with Vanderslice into the world of artisan bread, embodiment and what it means to fully embrace your vocation.”
- Gisela Kreglinger, PhD, author of The Spirituality of Wine and The Soul of Wine
“Kendall Vanderslice's memoir By Bread Alone provides a refreshing perspective on the intersection of faith and food. Vanderslice eloquently uses her baking expertise and experience to poignantly remind us that the simple acts of making, breaking, and eating bread have profound theological implications.”
- Adrian Miller, James Beard Award winner and Executive Director of the Colorado Council of Churches
“By Bread Alone is a powerful invitation into the rhythms of baking and the rhythms of faith. As Vanderslice explains, these are complex journeys of nuance and transformation that mirror one another. Through a robust exploration of breadmaking and her own story, Kendall vulnerably and insightfully offers an alternative to the “Wonder Bread theology” that often plagues the church. This book nourishes and satisfies our deepest longings for The Bread of Life. ”
- Kat Armas, author of Abuelita Faith and host of The Protagonistas podcast
“By Bread Alone is a tender and vulnerable story of Kendall's search to be satisfied by God's provision for her given life. A memoir about what it means to be hungry, what it means to be filled, and what it means to not always get what you desire. I loved this book and needed it myself. Every woman who has struggled to love and learn and lean into their body, while still looking with hope toward their resurrected body, needs this book.”
- Lore Ferguson Wilbert, author of A Curious Faith and Handle With Care
